Assembly Watch

Lawmarkers in the Rivers State House of Assembly last week rejected a bill seeking to establish Internal Revenue Monitoring Agency based on the fact that an earlier law had covered the subject matter.

The bill, which was to be pronounced dead was however saved from immediate death and allowed to  be put into the House pigeon hole.

Leader of the Assembly, Hon. Chidi Lloyd, who had earlier supported the bill to cure the leakages in the system, however, relied on House Order 34, Rule 12 to make another contribution to the issue at stake.

He urged the Speaker to read the mood of the lawmakers and defer debate on the bill indefinitely until such a time when the Assembly’s Business and Rules Committee would deem it necessary to reschedule the bill on the order paper.

Speaker, Rt Hon. Otelemaba Amachree through a unanimous voice vote allowed the bill to roll smoothly to sleep as there was no opposition to that effect because even the sponsor of the bill was absent from proceeding.

Earlier, the lawmaker representing Eleme and Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Hon. Josiah John Olu, said most of the sections contained in the bill were the same with the law recently passed by the Assembly and therefore urged the House to throw away the proposal.

To commence proceedings on Tuesday, Hon. John Olu, prayed God to grant the House members grace to carry out their functions to benefit Rivers people and equally asked God to touch the heart of the speaker to enable him make the lawmakers happy because the body was weak.

In another development, the repackaged Customary Court Law Amendment Bill was reintroduced to the House and given its first reading

The bill, which was earlier rejected by the House for structural defects, was sponsored by the lawmaker representing Etche Constituency II, Hon. Golden Chioma.

Presenting the bill, Tuesday, Hon. Chioma said the bill had been repackaged in line with the wish of the House and contains 18 parts with sections allowing the Customary Court to handle chieftaincy disputes, sharing of family property when a man dies without a will under the customary marriage.

Within the period under review, the Speaker read a letter from the Office of the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs Ibim Semenitari requesting for a breakfast meeting with the honourable lawmakers.

He, therefore, directed the House Committee Chairman on Information and Training, Hon. Onari Brown to liaise with the Commissioner to arrive at a more convenient date and report back to him.

However, Tuesday’s sitting suffered a major set back as power failure hampered proceedings of the House for about one hour. The power outage came in the middle of the debate on the Revenue Monitoring Agency Bill.

The incident forced the Speaker to stand down the House for 30 minutes but only offered apologies on resumption to members.

Meanwhile, the much-expected first meeting between the Speaker of the Seventh Assembly and the House Press Corps scheduled for Thursday afternoon could not hold as the Speaker was said to be attending an emergency meeting.

Addressing press corps members who had waited for several hours, the Information and Training Committee Chairman, Hon. Onari Brown apologised on behalf of the Speaker and promised to facilitate the interface soon.